The Ninety-Pound Rucksack Challenge is an annual ski mountaineering event honoring the legacy of the 10th Mountain Division.
Ninety Pound Rucksack Challenge
The Ninety-Pound Rucksack Challenge is an annual ski mountaineering event honoring the legacy of the 10th Mountain Division, their historic World War II ascent of Italy’s Riva Ridge, and their post-war contributions to American skiing.
WHAT IS THE NINETY-POUND RUCKSACK CHALLENGE?
The Ninety-Pound Rucksack Challenge is a ski mountaineering event held every February 18th at 7 PM local time, bringing together skiers, snowboarders, veterans, active duty military, and uphill athletes to honor the 10th Mountain Division. Inspired by the unit’slegendary WWII ascent of Riva Ridge, the Challenge is simple: participants climb 1,500–2,500 vertical feet and ski back down, justas the 10th did in 1945.
Whether carrying a full pack, a light load, or just the spirit of adventure, each participant becomes part of a national movement—one that blends history, endurance, and camaraderie in a celebration of the mountain legacy the 10th helped create.
WHAT IS THE NINETY-POUND RUCKSACK CHALLENGE?
The Ninety-Pound Rucksack Challenge is a ski mountaineering event held every February 18th at 7 PM local time, bringing together skiers, snowboarders, veterans, active duty military, and uphill athletes to honor the 10th Mountain Division. Inspired by the unit’slegendary WWII ascent of Riva Ridge, the Challenge is simple: participants climb 1,500–2,500 vertical feet and ski back down, justas the 10th did in 1945.
Whether carrying a full pack, a light load, or just the spirit of adventure, each participant becomes part of a national movement—one that blends history, endurance, and camaraderie in a celebration of the mountain legacy the 10th helped create.
Feb
18
Wed
The Ninety-Pound Rucksack Challenge is an annual ski mountaineering event honoring the legacy of the 10th Mountain Division.
Ninety Pound Rucksack Challenge
Date & Time
Feb. 18, 2026
7:00 PM
The Ninety-Pound Rucksack Challenge is an annual ski mountaineering event honoring the legacy of the 10th Mountain Division, their historic World War II ascent of Italy’s Riva Ridge, and their post-war contributions to American skiing.
WHAT IS THE NINETY-POUND RUCKSACK CHALLENGE?
The Ninety-Pound Rucksack Challenge is a ski mountaineering event held every February 18th at 7 PM local time, bringing together skiers, snowboarders, veterans, active duty military, and uphill athletes to honor the 10th Mountain Division. Inspired by the unit’slegendary WWII ascent of Riva Ridge, the Challenge is simple: participants climb 1,500–2,500 vertical feet and ski back down, justas the 10th did in 1945.
Whether carrying a full pack, a light load, or just the spirit of adventure, each participant becomes part of a national movement—one that blends history, endurance, and camaraderie in a celebration of the mountain legacy the 10th helped create.
WHAT IS THE NINETY-POUND RUCKSACK CHALLENGE?
The Ninety-Pound Rucksack Challenge is a ski mountaineering event held every February 18th at 7 PM local time, bringing together skiers, snowboarders, veterans, active duty military, and uphill athletes to honor the 10th Mountain Division. Inspired by the unit’slegendary WWII ascent of Riva Ridge, the Challenge is simple: participants climb 1,500–2,500 vertical feet and ski back down, justas the 10th did in 1945.
Whether carrying a full pack, a light load, or just the spirit of adventure, each participant becomes part of a national movement—one that blends history, endurance, and camaraderie in a celebration of the mountain legacy the 10th helped create.
Background
The US Army’s 10th Mountain Division was an unprecedented unit of expert mountaineers who trained for more than three years—often carrying ninety-pound “rucksacks,” or backpacks—to fight the Axis powers in extreme cold and mountainous terrain. In early 1945 they were inserted into Italy’s Apennine Mountains to break Hitler’s Gothic Line, a fortified series of summits and ridges that had stymied Allied advances for more than 500 days.
To do so, the soldiers first had to take a feature known as Riva Ridge. It was an escarpment so precipitous the Germans barely guarded it, for they considered it impossible to climb. At 1900 (7 p.m.) on February 18, 1945, some 1,000 10th Mountain Division soldiers began a night-time ascent of the wall. Carrying packs that weighed up to 50 pounds, they climbed via four different routes that ranged from 1,500 to 2,500 feet of vertical gain to take the Germans on top without a casualty. Their successful ascent not only cracked the Gothic Line; it precipitated the German surrender of Italy and hastened the end of the war as well.
In the peace that followed, more than 2,000 veterans of the 10th became ski instructors, operated ski schools and developed ski areas around the country, including Aspen, Vail, A-Basin, Crystal Mountain, Sugarbush, Mt. Hood and Mt. Bachelor.
For more information about the event, visit https://christianbeckwith.com/npr-challenge/
rich-text, responsive-table
The US Army’s 10th Mountain Division was an unprecedented unit of expert mountaineers who trained for more than three years—often carrying ninety-pound “rucksacks,” or backpacks—to fight the Axis powers in extreme cold and mountainous terrain. In early 1945 they were inserted into Italy’s Apennine Mountains to break Hitler’s Gothic Line, a fortified series of summits and ridges that had stymied Allied advances for more than 500 days.
To do so, the soldiers first had to take a feature known as Riva Ridge. It was an escarpment so precipitous the Germans barely guarded it, for they considered it impossible to climb. At 1900 (7 p.m.) on February 18, 1945, some 1,000 10th Mountain Division soldiers began a night-time ascent of the wall. Carrying packs that weighed up to 50 pounds, they climbed via four different routes that ranged from 1,500 to 2,500 feet of vertical gain to take the Germans on top without a casualty. Their successful ascent not only cracked the Gothic Line; it precipitated the German surrender of Italy and hastened the end of the war as well.
In the peace that followed, more than 2,000 veterans of the 10th became ski instructors, operated ski schools and developed ski areas around the country, including Aspen, Vail, A-Basin, Crystal Mountain, Sugarbush, Mt. Hood and Mt. Bachelor.
For more information about the event, visit https://christianbeckwith.com/npr-challenge/
rich-text, responsive-table